The discursive strategy about the employability in the European Higher Education Area: purpose and challenge in the configuration of study programmes

Abstract

In the knowledge society take on special importance the study of the possible the implications and consequences of supranational spaces in higher education.  The economic progress is determined by the capitalization and instrumentalization of knowledge. In this scenario, the response of the institutions to the needs of the labour market and the dynamics of labour insertion are established as a central concern.

Therefore, this research aims to describe and understand the conceptualization of employability in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). How is it impacting in the configuration of syllabus? Is the employability interacting with other dimensions of higher education?

Given its nature, the methodology of analysis of supranational scenarios of a documentary nature has been applied. It has been structured in the following phases: 1) selection and definition of the research problem and contextualization; 2) choice of the analysis unit, document collection phase and document coding phase, all of them contemplated in the methodological design; 3) results analysis phase; and, finally, 4) conclusive and prospective phase.

It was found that the discourse strategies place employability throughout the configuration of the EHEA as one of the priorities of university education. It is in relation to mobility and the configuration of the levels of study of higher education.

This goal has been in favour of an extraordinary instrumentalization, implying the implementation of a series of dynamics. In this sense, the design of study plans is promoting in terms of exchange value, due to their connection with the labour market, and we question about what is the space for humanistic, reflective and critical contents in the study programmes?